All you have to do is enter the gross return of the fund (referred to as the Market Return which could be misunderstood as the benchmark index return), the annual fee, any applicable loads and the number of years.

For any number of reasons there is an increased interest in Do-it-yourself investing (DIY) .Whether its investment dealer shenanigans, greedy commission- driven advisers, high mutual fund fees, the non-bank ABCP meltdown, the Earl Jones fiasco, poor fund performance or advisor fraud, retail investors are looking at alternatives to the commission-driven advisor channel...

Markarian v. CIBC World Markets Inc.

STREETPROOFING FOR INVESTORS :STRATEGIES FOR MOVING BEYOND HOPE, GREED AND FEAR by Glorianne Stromberg

Over 10 million Canadians make investments in stocks, bonds, GIC’s and mutual funds. It’s a BIG business and highly profitable for the banks, fund companies, dealers and brokers. Mutual funds alone collect over $10 billion in fees each year. -the sales are commission based and include embedded sales commissions. When financially unsophisticated investors meet commission or quota- driven advisers, a toxic mixture can be created. So, it's not unnatural that problems will develop due to incompetence, greed, misrepresentation, or even administrative errors. This is where an effective investor complaint process can help you recover undue financial losses. A “Complaint” is defined to include any written or verbal statement of grievance from a client or any person acting on their behalf, former client or prospective client, alleging a grievance involving a firm or representative of a firm.

While the Chairmen of provincial securities regulators publicize their wonderful contributions to regulation, investors suffered badly. Billions of dollars were lost to unsuitable investments, excessive fees and leveraging, misleading marketing, fraudulent funds and crooked advisers and brokers. Here’s a small sampling of the rattraps retail investors had to endure in 2008.